Clothes offer significant markers about individuals and societies as well as revealing profound truths about beliefs, identity and values. In the three pieces featured in this month's New Writing notes, we are offered insight into different cultures, histories and imaginations that are revealed through the clothing that people wear. Rahat Kurd and Sharmistha Mohanty provide insight into the status of women through their clothing while Adam Marek's short story is a shocking tribute to the power of a child's imagination.

In Rahat Kurd's autobiographical piece 'A Memoir of Modest Appearances' the muslim head cover is explored in terms of its cultural, literary and feminist significance. Kurd's informative and intriguing points, linking the writing of A. S. Byatt with the political notions of the muslim head cover are fascinating and Kurd's good-natured bewilderment keeps the piece of lively and engaging.

Sharmistha Mohanty's short but profound description of the organic development of the sari in 'The Sari', conveys a huge amount about the history and cultural background of India, spanning social mores, the growth of the Mughal Empire, the changing status of women and even the climate. Mohanty's prose is crisp and elegant, revealing much about the changing status of women while ostensibly discussing clothing.

Adam Marek's short story 'Batman vs the Bull', is a profound piece of imaginative writing that is a combination of surreal storytelling, horror story, rites of passage and a bold take on the idea of 'clothes maketh the man...' It tells the story of Casey, a young boy who is keen to win a party prize by collecting as much rubbish as possible. While on his quest, he encounters a disturbing character who quickly takes on the mythical figure of a bull, in a tense and frightening story.

Adam Marek

Adam Marek was born in 1974. His stories have appeared in the Bridport Prize anthology (2003, runner up, 2005 2nd place), Parenthesis from Comma Press and on-line at www.Pulp.net. He was shortlisted for the Douglas Coupland award in 2004. He has read his work at the Poetry Café in London and at the Central Library in Manchester. He has recently completed a collection of short stories and is working on a novel.

Photograph:Naomi Arton

Sharmistha Mohanty

Sharmistha Mohanty is the author of New Life, a novel, published 2005, by India Ink/Roli Books. She also has an as yet unpublished novel, Book One. Her translations of Tagore, Broken Nest and Other Stories, will appear in early 2007. She is currently at work on a new novel and a book of prose texts. Mohanty attended the graduate programme in fiction at the Iowa Writers Workshop in the United States. She lives in Mumbai.

Rahat Kurd

Accepting the injustice of a childhood without a Muslim School of Rock, but still bitter, Rahat Kurd began writing 'The Zealot in The Mirror: a memoir of modest appearances', in 2003. She lives with her husband Hanif Karim and their son Aijaz in Vancouver, Canada.

Illustration © Maurizio Marmorato